


Not Dead, Just Sleeping

by rainbow_nerds



Series: Soulmate AU [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Captain America Steve Rogers, Captain America Steve Rogers/Modern Bucky Barnes, Fluff, M/M, Minor Peggy Carter/Angie Martinelli, Peggy deserves better, Professor Bucky Barnes, Soulwords, no angst just fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-26 09:57:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20740349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbow_nerds/pseuds/rainbow_nerds
Summary: When Bucky was a child, he thought his soulmate was Captain America. Of course, that was ridiculous. Captain Steve Rogers died long before Bucky was born. But still, the idea stayed.





	Not Dead, Just Sleeping

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote this all in one go and haven't really edited it, just got the urge to write something quick and cute! I'm working on a longer fic too, but it's taking a while to write, but keep an eye out! Enjoy, and please let me know if there are any mistakes or whatever!

When Bucky Barnes was a child, he thought that his soulmate was Captain America. Who could blame him? The words were there on his wrist, clear as day.

_Steve Rogers, nice to meet you._

The day he had learned about the Howling Commandoes in school, he ran home to tell his parents he had figured it out.

“Honey, I know you think that, but Captain America is dead. It must be someone else with the same name. Just be patient, okay?”

His parents were practically the poster for patience. They had both been in their forties by the time they met each other, with his mom asking his dad if he could reach for something on the top shelf in the grocery store, and his response of “It’s finally you.” He and his twin sister had been born hardly a year later, and the wedding soon followed. He could be patient, he supposed, but they couldn’t convince him that the man in his history book with the beautiful smile and silly outfit wasn’t his soulmate.

His interest grew as the years went by, reading everything he could about Captain America, his squad, and the war he had fought in. By the Time Bucky was in college, he had finally accepted that the man was dead, and couldn’t really be his soulmate, but by then he was already so invested in the subject that choosing history as a major, and writing his PhD on the Captain was as natural as breathing.

He often wondered who the real Steve Rogers was, the one on his arm, but as he threw himself into his research, he couldn’t help but wonder why Captain America’s words were nowhere to be seen in the records. It was well documented that Peggy Carter had had the words ‘Nice accent, English, how’s the pie?’, though she hadn’t disclosed the speaker of those words publicly until the eighties as Angie Martinelli, well known Broadway starlet of the mid-century. But try as he might, he found no trace of the words of the captain himself, the uniform being tailored carefully to not show the wrist, even with combat conditions. Those close to him were obviously loyal too, as none had ever let it slip.

So, Bucky let go of his silly childhood fantasy of a superhero soulmate, and settled into his job at the university, teaching bored college students about history and researching his favourite subject in the evenings. He was beginning to wonder if he had read all there was to read on the subject, until one day when he got a call from a blocked number. He answered tentatively, hoping it wasn’t a scam.

“Hello?”

“Is this Mr James Barnes?”

“Uh… Yes, it is… Who is this?”

“I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to say. I represent an agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., we were wondering if you could come in.”

Bucky’s eyes went wide. S.H.I.E.L.D. was a ghost story, something mentioned in passing in documents about people who had been close to Captain America, but there was never anything solid, nothing _real_. This had to be a joke. Someone in his department playing a trick on him. There was no way.

“I, uh... I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He hedged. “What the hell is S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

“Mr Barnes, we both know you’re smarter than that. We’ll clear it with your department head of course, but we’ve been keeping an eye on you, and we think you may be just the expert we need for this situation” The line went dead and Bucky shook his head, bemused. That absolutely had to have been a prank. He went back to the book he had been reading (well, rereading), when his phone rang again. He was about to send them to his voicemail when he saw the name on the screen. He groaned.

“Hi Darcy, what’s up?”

“Bucko! Hey, just a heads up that the Dean has given you the next few weeks off, something to do with a secret government organisation pulling strings. Wild.”

“Wait – what? That’s real?” That’s it, he decided, he was in the fucking twilight zone or some shit. Or he was dreaming, and he’d wake up with his book on his face again and laugh at how weird his dreams were becoming, telling himself he needed to stop reading conspiracies about world war two supervillains before bed.

“Seems legit, they’re sending a car tomorrow to pick you up. Hey if you end up in area 51 could you pick me up an alien boyfriend, thanks boo!” and with that, she hung up. Bucky pinched himself, and it hurt, so that ruled out a dream. He just shrugged and went to bed, hoping it would make more sense in the morning.

He was awoken by a honking outside his door, followed by his doorbell ringing. He didn’t even remember the weird phone calls until he opened the door and was faced with a man and woman, both wearing suits, standing at his front door.

“Um... Hi?”

“Hello Mr. Barnes, I’m Agent Hill, and this is my colleague Agent Coulson. We spoke on the phone?” Bucky blinked, and cringed as he realised he was in his pyjamas still.

“Right… Right. Uh, no offense, but do ya think I could see some sort of ID on that? Sorta finding all this a lot to wrap my head around.”

Coulson smiled reassuringly, while Hill seemed a tad impatient, but they both showed ID, with the logo he had read descriptions of in some texts but had never seen in real life. It did seem legit.

“Right. Uh... Could you maybe tell me what this is about?”

“Get changed Mr. Barnes, we can explain in the car on the way. You’ll need to sign some NDAs and the like.”

The pair retreated to the car and Bucky made a decision.

He decided to fuck it. Either he was dreaming, and he wanted to see how this would work out, he was being kidnapped for some unknown reason by people who had put in FAR too much effort, or – and he could hardly believe he was entertaining the possibility – maybe these two really were who they said they were, and he was about to be part of some super cool secret agent plot. He changed into his usual work clothes – shirt, tie, nice pants and his favourite blazer. Becca could joke all she wanted about the “sexy professor look”, but hey, it worked.

He left the house and was ushered into the back seat of the sleek black car with the two agents in the front. They passed back a large pile of documents, telling him to read them as much as he could, and sign the dotted lines.

They were silent for a long stretch of time as they drove, but once he had signed everywhere he needed to, he couldn’t hold in his questions anymore.

“So, where the fuck are you taking me?” He asked, impatiently.

“Well, Mr. Barnes, as you know, you are one of the leading academics on the subject of Captain Steven Rogers – Also known as Captain America, is that correct?” Agent Coulson spoke from the front seat.

Bucky felt a slight tingle on his wrist, but ignored it, muttering an affirmative.

“Well, there’s been a… Development. So to speak. New evidence has come to light. We wanted you to take a look. It’s hard to explain, you’d better see for yourself.”

“We’re almost there, Barnes, just you wait.” Hill added, reassuringly. To his surprise, they actually were pretty close, and they pulled into some sort of disguised parking garage. The agents led him to an elevator with a complicated looking keypad. They emerged in a hallway with clean, chrome walls and a shiny floor. Bucky looked around in amazement. It was a far cry from the dusty humanities building in the university.

They walked down the corridor, which twisted and turned until he didn’t think he could find his way back, and then into what seemed like a huge aircraft hangar. His eyes immediately fell on the craft housed there and his lungs emptied.

“Is- Is that what I think it is?” he finally managed to ask.

“Yep. That there is the Valkyrie herself. Just found up north, relocated here. But that’s not why you’re here, at least not fully.” He couldn’t tear his eyes from the craft, it was bigger than he had ever imagined from the pictures, and he couldn’t help but look at the window to the control room, where Captain America must have been when he brought it down. His heart clenched at the thought.

The agents had gone to the other side of the hangar and were waiting by a heavily guarded door, gesturing for him to follow. He didn’t think he could be more impressed by anything than the airship, but as he followed them through and saw what waited inside, he found himself sorely mistaken.

“Well, fuck.”

The man lay unconscious in what looked like a bath of water. Limbs almost blue, hair plastered to his head, but undoubtedly him. Captain Steve Rogers, in the flesh. Alive, from the sound of the machines beeping around him.

“I need to sit down.”

He was led to another room, this one marginally more comfortable, as they finally explained the situation. He was honestly shocked at how well he took it, considering. They wanted Bucky to help with readjustment apparently, when he woke up. They suggested a familiar setting, complete with a fake backdrop and recorded radio, but Bucky grimaced.

“The guy was the greatest strategic mind of the twentieth century, apart from Peggy Carter. He’d figure that out in a matter of seconds. You gotta be honest with him.”

And so, they waited. Bucky was given a bedroom to stay in for the duration, and they had somehow stocked the wardrobe with his own clothes. He spent his days drafting a plan, a script, responses to possible questions for the agents and doctors to follow. He spent his evenings in the hangar, geeking out and taking notes on every feature of the Valkyrie which wasn’t already in the history books.

And then it happened. This time he was awoken by a strange sensation in his wrist, but it was gone by the time he had the light on to investigate. He was debating whether to get up or try to sleep when there was a knock on his door and Hill’s voice came through the cracks.

“Barnes. He’s awake.”

Bucky jumped out of bed and threw on clothes, opening the door.

“Is he…”

“He’s fine. Disoriented, but the plan worked, he’s asking a lot of questions but that’s to be expected. Wanna come meet him?” and Bucky’s brain short circuited. He was going to _meet_ Captain America. Wow. Okay. His expression must have showed because Hill laughed a little, quickly suppressing it.

“Come on, he asked to meet the so-called expert of ours.” And so, Bucky allowed himself to be led once again back to the medical wing, wondering how on earth he would be able to go back to his books after encountering the real deal.

Before he knew it, he was walking in the door, and being struck dumb by that same smile he had swooned over as a child, but this time paired with eyes that were so blue, cameras in the 40s could not capture how blue they were, and the man was standing up, surprisingly steady on his feet for someone who had been in a coma for seventy odd years.

“Captain, this is our historical expert James Barnes.” Bucky blinked as the Captain held out his hand and thank god his body was still functioning because he was able to reach out to shake it.

“Steve Rogers, nice to meet you” oh my god.

Oh my _god._

“I was fucking right holy fucking shit!” And Bucky realised he had said those last words aloud because Captain America – _Steve’s _eyes widened, and if Bucky had thought his smile was blinding before, it was _nothing _on what it looked like now. And it was contagious, because he found himself matching the smile, and before he knew it, they were both giggling uncontrollably.

“You’re such a fucking asshole, oh my god!” Steve gasped through laughter, showing his wrist and the words that were written there. “The amount of shit I got for this; you have no idea!”

And Then they were hugging, and Bucky thought he could stay like this forever. He didn’t even notice the gleeful, if slightly shocked and confused expressions on the agents’ faces.

**

“Hey Mom?”

Yeah sweetheart?”

“Guess who my soulmate is?”

**Author's Note:**

> Also I really like this story, so who knows maybe I'll turn it into a series of oneshots of their relationship? let me know if that's something you'd like!!


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